Description
The following table shows the five most important text types:
| Description | Present physical characteristics of being, objects etc. |
| Instruction | Meant to influence the reader's behaviours by advising him/her. |
| Argumentation | Express an opinion, deals with controversial matters. |
| Narration | A text that relates actions and events in a temporal order. |
| Exposition | Based on the explanation analysis of complex facts. |
Description
- In the objective description, the language used presents physical objects in a way that anyone would see them, using spatial order, colour, etc. A kind of objective description would be a police report in which one describes an objective exactly the way it is, without the use of emotion or opinion.
- The impressionistic description, however, relies on senses to paint a picture for the reader. Sensual impressions tend to employ the use of metaphor and figurative languages to bring an object to "live" rather than relying on the real and actual, as the objective description does. Impressionistic description relies on sight, sound, smell, taste and touch and therefore reflects the emotion and opinion of the writer.
Characterization
An often used kind of description is the characterization of people. Characterization is a way of presenting a person / character in a fictional Text. The next table shows, that there are two different kinds of characterisations. The explicit and the implicit one.
| Explicit | Implicit |
|
If the reader or the audience is told about the character's traits directly by the author, another character, or the character her/himself, we speak of explicit characterisation. Wenn der Leser oder das Publikum direkt von dem Autor, von einem anderen Charakter oder von dem Charakter selbst über die Charaktereigenschaften informiert wird, spricht man von einer explizieten Charakterisierung. |
If the reader or audience is excepted to find out about the character's traits indirectly through what the character says and does, we speak of implicit characterization. Wenn der Leser oder das Publikum die Informationen über die Charaktereigenschaften indirekt anhand dessen, was der Charakter sagt oder tut herausfinden muss, spricht man von einer implizieten Charakterisierung. |
Write a characterization
When you start to write a charactization of a person you can use the following system.
| General |
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| Appearance |
|
| Relationships to others |
|
| Character traits |
|
Vocalbulary
The following tables contain some vocabulary you can use when you describe a person.
|
thin (dünn) long (lang) angular (eckig) round (rund) baby-faced broad (breit) |
flat (flach) pointed (spitz) |
small (klein) large (groß) narrow (schmal) round (rund) blue, etc. shiny (glänzend) |
dark (dunkel) fair (hell) smooth (weich) rough (rauh) swarthy weather-beaten |
wavy (wellig) curly (lockig) frizzy (kräuselig) straight (glatt) long (lang) short (kurz) bald (glatzköpfig) |
| rather neutral | rather negativ |
|
determined (entschlossen) |
pig-headed (???), stubborn (stur), obstinate (starrsinnig) |
|
thifty/economical (sparsam) |
tight-fisted (krauserig), mean (geizig), miserly (knickerig), stingy (geizig) |
|
self assured (selbstsicher) |
full of oneself (selbstüberzeugt), self-important (egoistisch), arrogant (arrogant) |
|
unconventional (originell) |
eccentic (exzentrisch), odd (merkwürdig), weird (unheimlich), peculiar (sonderbar) |
|
frank/open (offen) |
blunt (stumpf), curt (knapp), abrupt (plötzlich), brusque (barsch) |
|
broad-mined (tolerant) |
permissive (freizügig), unprincipled (gewissenslos) |
|
inquiring (fragend) |
inquisitive (neugierig), nosy (neugierig) |
|
generous (großmütig) |
extravagant (extravagant) |
|
innocent (unschuldig) |
naive (naiv) |
|
ambitious (ehrgeizig) |
pushy (aufdringlich) |
|
assertive (bestimmend) |
bossy (rechthaberisch), aggressive (aggressiv) |
